Swampscott, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
You’re in North Shore
The settled coast north of Boston — salt air, tidy town lots, and sea-tempered winters that hold the cold off a little longer than the hills inland. Wind and salt spray are the near-shore gardener's companions here.
Even in Swampscott, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Swampscott lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Swampscott — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Swampscott — the short answer
Swampscott, Massachusetts: USDA zone 7a, about 234 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~234
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 7a is Swampscott's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Swampscott's 234-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Swampscott
Each reading below is measured for Swampscott itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSwampscott runs about 234 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredSwampscott sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Swampscott is in
Swampscott sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Swampscott's own centroid rather than borrowed from Essex County.
What Grows in Swampscott
Every plant below cleared Swampscott's own zone 7a and its 234-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Swampscott?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Swampscott
Spotted lanternfly documented 9 miles from Swampscott, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Swampscott
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Swampscott. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EURO CLEANERS OF SWAMPSCOTTBrownfields · 2100 ft
- STANLEY ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBrownfields · 2300 ft
- ALLIANCE ENERGY CORPBrownfields · 2400 ft
- E & P SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- SCULLEY RESIDENCEBrownfields · 2500 ft
- SWAMPSCOTT WATER POLL CONTRLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ROODS FOREIGN AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- SWAMPSCOTT WATER DEPT. (MWRA)PFAS · 0.9 mi
- TEDESCO COUNTRY CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- ANGIES SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- WHOLE FOODS MARKET - SWAMPSCOTT (SWA)Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- HOMEGOODS H0534Brownfields · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Swampscott's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Swampscott.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Swampscott
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Swampscott
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Swampscott, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 1,653 sites within ~10 miles of Swampscott. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Swampscott
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Swampscott average
Your land is one point inside Swampscott
Everything above resolves to Swampscott as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at town scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Swampscott Average
Swampscott Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Swampscott
- ●One soil character for all of Swampscott
- ●Frost dates read at Swampscott's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Swampscott's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Swampscott
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Swampscott, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Swampscott averages can't show:
We read public map data around Swampscott — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Swampscott average
How we know this about Swampscott
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Swampscott’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Swampscott
When does frost risk typically end in Swampscott?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Swampscott typically lands around Mar 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Apr 21.
When is the first frost in Swampscott?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Swampscott typically arrives around Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 6, so the watching starts about Oct 21 — about 234 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Swampscott?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Swampscott sees about 234 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Nov 6, about 199 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Swampscott?
The federal record around Swampscott runs heavier than most — 2,593 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (1,653), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Swampscott?
From about Oct 21 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Swampscott's scale — its 7a band and its 234-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Swampscott's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Swampscott’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Swampscott's own scale — its own ~234-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,934 acres it covers and 2,593 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Swampscott's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Swampscott's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 20 and the ~234-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,593 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Swampscott, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Swampscott's boundary and the 1,934 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~234-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Swampscott's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Swampscottlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Swampscott's 1,934 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Essex County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Essex County
- The growing challenges every Massachusetts grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Massachusetts
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Essex County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Swampscott's 1,934 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Swampscott you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,934 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Swampscott-wide figureread your own land →
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